If Big Ben Isn't Elite, Who Is? Ranking Roethlisberger Against the NFL

by Nick Signorelli
Can Ben Roethlisberger be considered an elite quarterback?

As described in an article by fellow columnist Ray Jag (which can be found right here), Webster's says, selected as the best, an elect circle.

We are going to take a look at each of the 31 other teams in the NFL and see who would be considered elite.

AFC East

NY Jets

There is NO QUESTION that the J-E-T-S would LOVE to have B-E-N on their roster. Now that Favre has retired, the QBs on the Jets roster have a total of eight games started. That is exactly how many playoff victories Big Ben has.

Buffalo Bills

Had the Bills thought Ben would be elite, they could have traded up to draft him. Instead they drafted J.P. Losman. Guess they missed the boat.

New England Patriots

Brady is HOF already. New England can already say they have one of the elite.

Miami Dolphins

Sure, Chad Pennington is good, but Bill Parcells himself has said that he wants Chad to take more chances. In a straight up trade, Parcells would trade Pennington and a first for Big Ben.

AFC West

Oakland Raiders

One of the teams that COULD have drafted Ben. Instead, they chose Robert Gallery—a decision that has set the Raiders back five years.

Kansas City Chiefs

With a revolving door at the QB position, none of the QBs on the roster are good enough to even be a backup in Pittsburgh.

Denver Broncos

Jay Cutler is a good QB working his way to elite. He has good numbers but can't seem to get the team to the playoffs.

San Diego Chargers

If you ask anyone in the San Diego front office, they will tell you they made the right choice. Philip Rivers has good numbers but is the only one of the Big Three from the draft class without a ring.

AFC South

Tennessee Titans

Kerry Collins is good but old. Vince Young is a head case. You can't tell me that they wouldn't trade BOTH of them for Big Ben.

Houston Texans

Ben would have been a good fit. Instead they chose Dunta Robinson the pick before Ben. Texans QBs have been sacked almost as much as Ben has; they just can't get the W's.

Jacksonville Jaguars

David Garrard is a long way from his two-INT year two years ago. Jack Del Rio would kill to get Leftwich back, let alone Ben.

Indianapolis Colts

Yes, Manning's numbers are amazing. He won't have the stigma of never winning a Super Bowl like Dan Marino. But Manning is 32 and nearing the end of his career.

AFC North

Cincinnati Bengals

Cincy is set with Carson Palmer—though Palmer has as many playoff wins as the Detroit Lions this decade. Not really a competition.

Cleveland Browns

Derek Anderson or Brady Quinn? Though Quinn has a chance to be a decent QB, they are still undecided on who is going to be the starter next year.

Baltimore Ravens

Baltimore has drafted someone they think will be the next Big Ben, Joe "Cool" Flacco. This shows how much they think of Big Ben and his accomplishments.
NFC

NFC North

Detroit Lions

Oh, the QB issues in Detroit! Detroit has no one on the roster that could play in Canada. Yeah, they would take Ben.

Chicago Bears

Rex Grossman and Kyle Orton are both career backups. Ben would make the Bears legit Super Bowl contenders immediately.

Minnesota Vikings

Again, legit Super Bowl contenders with Ben.

Green Bay Packers

The decision to let Brett Favre leave last year would have been much easier with Ben on the roster. Aaron Rodgers played great until he got his contract extension.

NFC South

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

When Jeff Garcia is your best option, and he may not even be back, you need someone. They would kill for Ben.

Atlanta Falcons

Matt Ryan did a great job in his rookie season. Atlanta is happy with him. But even as good as he has done, he is not as good as Ben.

Carolina Panthers

Jake Delhomme is a good QB, but fell apart in the playoffs. Ben has proved he can handle the pressure.

New Orleans Saints

Drew Brees is a great QB. He puts up great numbers everywhere he needs to except the win column.

NFC West

Arizona Cardinals

Kurt Warner is old, and Matt Leinart was never good enough to win the job from him.

Seattle Seahawks

Matt Hasselbeck is good, but like Warner is getting old. Seneca Wallace is not the long-term answer.

St. Louis Rams

Rumor has it that Marc Bulger may be gone, and there is no one else on the roster (Trent Green included) that can be the QB of the future.

San Francisco 49ers

San Francisco will probably draft Mark Sanchez from USC in the draft this year. Enough said.

NFC East

Dallas Cowboys

Cowboys fans think Tony Romo is the greatest QB in the NFL. Far from it. The Boys haven't won a playoff game in 11 years. That wouldn't be the case if Ben had a star on his helmet.

NY Giants

Eli is a good QB, but not as good as Ben. Want to argue that? Look at the numbers. Very similar to Ben. Ben has two rings to Eli's one.

Philadelphia Eagles

Donovan McNabb is great, but getting old. Kevin Kolb is their QB of the future. Ben is the QB of now.

Washington Redskins

Jason Campbell is good, but another one that can't win in the playoffs. I'm actually surprised Daniel Snyder hasn't offered the Steelers 10 first day picks for Ben.

Of all the quarterbacks in the league, only Peyton Manning and Tom Brady can compare to Ben. Sure, some QBs have better numbers. But if you look at what counts—wins and Super Bowls—the ONLY QB that is in Ben's class would be Tom Brady.

If THAT isn't elite, I don't know what is.

The best line:
Kansas City
"With a revolving door at the QB position, none of the QBs on the roster are good enough to even be a backup in Pittsburgh."

....sorry Hardliner but it did make me chuckle.

mshifko

03-01-2009, 10:22 PM

ben has always been elite in my eyes, some used to think he was a game manager, some used to think he could only win if he threw the ball under 25 times, whatever let that go in one ear and out the other...big ben is a 2x champ and deserves all the accolades...

Djfan

03-02-2009, 02:46 AM

Cincy is set with Carson Palmer—though Palmer has as many playoff wins as the Detroit Lions this decade. Not really a competition.

I think I woke Mrs. Fan up laughing at this statement!!

I am going to put words into Ben's mouth: "I don't care where you rank me, or who you think is better. I have two rings now and at least two more to come."

That is how I feel about it, Ben!

Uncle Rico

03-02-2009, 06:56 AM

Since we live in an era of fantasy football and Madden a lot of these dumbasses out there only look at statistics to determine who is good and who sucks. In Ben's case the guy just MAKES PLAYS and WINS GAMES and that's all he ever has to do to be an elite NFL QB in my book.

Oviedo

03-02-2009, 10:03 AM

The moniker of "elite" is meaningless, result are all that accounts.

In the era of 24/7 media coverage and fantasy football clowns elite for a QB is really just:

1. Lots of stats in terms of TDs and passing yards
2. Passing the ball 40+ times per game so that ESPN and the NFL Netowrk have lots of raw footage for their "news Mcnuggets" segments.

Ben will never be considered "elite" because he does not get the pretty "style points" a lot of other QBs like Manning and Brady get.

That is why every off season is filled with Steelers bashing articles and "analysis" about the deficiencies of the Steelers. They cannot reconcile the success of team when they do not produce the stats that the typically uneducated "drive by media" needs to meet the demands of their editors for 24 hour sports print for the internet. It is easy for a lazy so-called journalist to just focus on stats for background and it feeds the fantasy football crowd with the info they need to play their little games.

papillon

03-02-2009, 10:29 AM

The moniker of "elite" is meaningless, result are all that accounts.

In the era of 24/7 media coverage and fantasy football clowns elite for a QB is really just:

1. Lots of stats in terms of TDs and passing yards
2. Passing the ball 40+ times per game so that ESPN and the NFL Netowrk have lots of raw footage for their "news Mcnuggets" segments.

Ben will never be considered "elite" because he does not get the pretty "style points" a lot of other QBs like Manning and Brady get.

That is why every off season is filled with Steelers bashing articles and "analysis" about the deficiencies of the Steelers. They cannot reconcile the success of team when they do not produce the stats that the typically uneducated "drive by media" needs to meet the demands of their editors for 24 hour sports print for the internet. It is easy for a lazy so-called journalist to just focus on stats for background and it feeds the fantasy football crowd with the info they need to play their little games.

Ben plays the way Mike Tomlin described the Dallas win this year. "That was a beautiful game. You can't get hung up on style points, the Steelers showed their mettle today."

That's Ben to a "T", he plays a beautiful game, his style points will always be less than Manning, Brady, Palmer, etc, but, he always shows mettle and wins games. This is fine by me and it makes watching Steeler football exciting, because, you never know what might happen late in a game.

Pappy

feltdizz

03-02-2009, 11:24 AM

fans of other QB's can brag about how pretty their QB's look when they lose games all day long....

I have read a ton of Romo fans posting his 4th quarter ratings and such...

RuthlessBurgher

03-02-2009, 11:32 AM

fans of other QB's can brag about how pretty their QB's look when they lose games all day long....

I have read a ton of Romo fans posting his 4th quarter ratings and such...

The only 4th quarter rating that matters is if your team has more points than the other team at the end of the 4th quarter. :mrgreen:

Oviedo

03-02-2009, 11:37 AM

fans of other QB's can brag about how pretty their QB's look when they lose games all day long....

I have read a ton of Romo fans posting his 4th quarter ratings and such...

The only 4th quarter rating that matters is if your team has more points than the other team at the end of the 4th quarter. :mrgreen:

That would be the "Roethlisberger stat"

us_steelinfrance

03-02-2009, 11:47 AM

The moniker of "elite" is meaningless, result are all that accounts.

In the era of 24/7 media coverage and fantasy football clowns elite for a QB is really just:

1. Lots of stats in terms of TDs and passing yards
2. Passing the ball 40+ times per game so that ESPN and the NFL Netowrk have lots of raw footage for their "news Mcnuggets" segments.

Ben will never be considered "elite" because he does not get the pretty "style points" a lot of other QBs like Manning and Brady get.

That is why every off season is filled with Steelers bashing articles and "analysis" about the deficiencies of the Steelers. They cannot reconcile the success of team when they do not produce the stats that the typically uneducated "drive by media" needs to meet the demands of their editors for 24 hour sports print for the internet. It is easy for a lazy so-called journalist to just focus on stats for background and it feeds the fantasy football crowd with the info they need to play their little games.

Ben plays the way Mike Tomlin described the Dallas win this year. "That was a beautiful game. You can't get hung up on style points, the Steelers showed their mettle today."

That's Ben to a "T", he plays a beautiful game, his style points will always be less than Manning, Brady, Palmer, etc, but, he always shows mettle and wins games. This is fine by me and it makes watching Steeler football exciting, because, you never know what might happen late in a game.

Pappy

That is so true. You know, I saw strangely calm when the Cards scored their final TD. I figured the game wasn't over until the clock showed zero and the Steelers (mainly Ben) have shown they know how to pull out wins. Come to think of it, I wasn't stressing when the Cards looked like they were going to score right before the half either. It was like I knew the D would come up big.

I love Steeler football!! :tt1

Oviedo

03-02-2009, 11:49 AM

The moniker of "elite" is meaningless, result are all that accounts.

In the era of 24/7 media coverage and fantasy football clowns elite for a QB is really just:

1. Lots of stats in terms of TDs and passing yards
2. Passing the ball 40+ times per game so that ESPN and the NFL Netowrk have lots of raw footage for their "news Mcnuggets" segments.

Ben will never be considered "elite" because he does not get the pretty "style points" a lot of other QBs like Manning and Brady get.

That is why every off season is filled with Steelers bashing articles and "analysis" about the deficiencies of the Steelers. They cannot reconcile the success of team when they do not produce the stats that the typically uneducated "drive by media" needs to meet the demands of their editors for 24 hour sports print for the internet. It is easy for a lazy so-called journalist to just focus on stats for background and it feeds the fantasy football crowd with the info they need to play their little games.

Ben plays the way Mike Tomlin described the Dallas win this year. "That was a beautiful game. You can't get hung up on style points, the Steelers showed their mettle today."

That's Ben to a "T", he plays a beautiful game, his style points will always be less than Manning, Brady, Palmer, etc, but, he always shows mettle and wins games. This is fine by me and it makes watching Steeler football exciting, because, you never know what might happen late in a game.

Pappy

That is so true. You know, I saw strangely calm when the Cards scored their final TD. I figured the game wasn't over until the clock showed zero and the Steelers (mainly Ben) have shown they know how to pull out wins. Come to think of it, I wasn't stressing when the Cards looked like they were going to score right before the half either. It was like I knew the D would come up big.

I love Steeler football!! :tt1

I had the same feeling. I looked at the time and told everyone watching at the house it was "Big Ben time." It is almost like they are so confident they orchestrate this stuff to "torture" us fans :D

feltdizz

03-02-2009, 11:54 AM

I think every Steeler fan knew what was going to happen at the end of the SB after the Cards scored. We have seen this happen for 5 years now... however the casual NFL fan had not... so they were left in awe... while we were quiet yet confident.

us_steelinfrance

03-02-2009, 11:57 AM

The moniker of "elite" is meaningless, result are all that accounts.

In the era of 24/7 media coverage and fantasy football clowns elite for a QB is really just:

1. Lots of stats in terms of TDs and passing yards
2. Passing the ball 40+ times per game so that ESPN and the NFL Netowrk have lots of raw footage for their "news Mcnuggets" segments.

Ben will never be considered "elite" because he does not get the pretty "style points" a lot of other QBs like Manning and Brady get.

That is why every off season is filled with Steelers bashing articles and "analysis" about the deficiencies of the Steelers. They cannot reconcile the success of team when they do not produce the stats that the typically uneducated "drive by media" needs to meet the demands of their editors for 24 hour sports print for the internet. It is easy for a lazy so-called journalist to just focus on stats for background and it feeds the fantasy football crowd with the info they need to play their little games.

Ben plays the way Mike Tomlin described the Dallas win this year. "That was a beautiful game. You can't get hung up on style points, the Steelers showed their mettle today."

That's Ben to a "T", he plays a beautiful game, his style points will always be less than Manning, Brady, Palmer, etc, but, he always shows mettle and wins games. This is fine by me and it makes watching Steeler football exciting, because, you never know what might happen late in a game.

Pappy

That is so true. You know, I saw strangely calm when the Cards scored their final TD. I figured the game wasn't over until the clock showed zero and the Steelers (mainly Ben) have shown they know how to pull out wins. Come to think of it, I wasn't stressing when the Cards looked like they were going to score right before the half either. It was like I knew the D would come up big.

I love Steeler football!! :tt1

I had the same feeling. I looked at the time and told everyone watching at the house it was "Big Ben time." It is almost like they are so confident they orchestrate this stuff to "torture" us fans :D

This is how they keep fans watching to the end (not that I wouldn't have anyway). :D

Now, I love me a shutout (see Christmas Eve Browns game) but I have to admit it's more exciting to watch a close game and pull out a victory in the fourth.